KPIT, a global leader in automotive software and mobility solutions, has announced the winners of KPIT Sparkle 2020 among 30 select teams who presented their ideas on transformative solutions in mobility and energy. Teams from Army Institute of Technology, Pune, won the gold award of Rs 5 Lakhs while both Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru jointly won silver awards of Rs 2.5 Lakhs.
Highlighting the necessity of innovation to reach the end destination, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Chief Guest at the occasion, pointed out that innovation could be a technology, a product, a process, but should add value and create something that is of utility.
Emphasising the role of the Department of Science and Technology in encouraging Science Technology and Innovation he said, “In terms of science technology and innovation indicators India has done great in terms of scientific publications, we are certainly the best in terms of the rate of growth in scientific publication, and that is clearly because of the efforts of the Department of Science and Technology over the period of last 10 or 15 years, and in the last 4-5 years we actually see in results.”
Dr. Anita Gupta, Adviser & Associate Head  DST, underlined the need to focus on innovation of excellence in multiple domains.
KPIT Sparkle is an innovation platform that nurtures, mentors, and supports aspiring entrepreneurs and connects them with incubators in the ecosystem to transform their inventive ideas into viable products.
KPIT Sparkle, an annual national-level contest, cultivates a culture of innovation by inspiring students from the STEM  streams to identify and solve real-life problems in sustainability by designing new technology-enabled solutions. It also encourages and facilitates students to secure intellectual property for their solutions.
This year, KPIT Sparkle featured two competitions including i Innovate, a design and development challenge, which received more than 3000 ideas from over 20,000 students across more than 1000 colleges in India and the i can crack IT challenge, which invited students and faculty members from science, engineering, design and management colleges, and universities to solve industrial problems provided by a team of technical experts from KPIT.
The programme provided students of undergraduate, post-graduate, and Ph.D. courses from science, engineering, design, and management colleges and universities across India with an opportunity to develop smart, safe, and clean solutions for the energy and transportation sectors. The Top 30 teams presented working prototypes of their solutions at the grand finale held at the Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering  on 1 March 2020.
“The mobility ecosystem is evolving, and it needs skilled talent to be able to cater to consumer demands. With our strong reputation as a technology disrupter for the automotive industry, KPIT is strongly positioned to contribute as the creator of new-age talent in the mobility ecosystem. KPIT Sparkle facilitates the academia and the industry to join forces and promote innovation with solutions led by new talent.” He added, “KPIT Sparkle is setting new benchmarks in innovation every year. The projects help make cities smarter with clean, green and intelligent technologies in energy and mobility,” said Ravi Pandit, Chairman, KPIT Technologies,
Dr. Unnat Pandit, Program Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and Dr. Anita Gupta, Adviser & Associate Head , Department of Science & Technology  were special guests at the event.
The team from the Army Institute of Technology, Pune won the gold award of Rs. 5,00,000 for designing a modified vertical axis wind turbine, inspired by an airplane nose design that increases the efficiency in extracting energy from the turbine. The system has six nose structures, each separated by cavities to let the channelised air through from one side to the other, resulting in a reduction of opposite drag force to give a net efficiency of 22.3%. It has applications in both the commercial and industrial sectors.
Two teams won the silver awards of Rs. 2,50,000 each. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, designed a novel technology to harvest renewable energy from hydrokinetic energy by taming vortex-induced vibrations, which are otherwise traditionally considered as destructive. The team from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru, for designing a bi-functional material for making the eco-friendly rechargeable zinc-air battery for electric vehicles more efficient.
St. Xavier’s Catholic College of Engineering, Kanyakumari, won the most popular award for designing a photobioreactor to enhance biomass productivity from microalgae growth by producing bio-hydrogen through the dark fermentation method, which is environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
Himanshu Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology , Goam AnupKanare, VidyaPrasarni Sabha’s College of Engineering & Technology, Pune, PrajaktaPokharnikar, AkhileshMagdum, Prof.MadhuraRaste, AnnasahebDange College of Engineering & Technology, Sangli, ShreyasThombare and Prof. Sanjay Mohite, D.Y Patil Institute of Engineering & Technology, Pune won I Can Crack IT award of Rs 50,000 each.
KPIT partnered with the Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship , IIM Ahmedabad; Incubation Cell, Indian Institute of Technology  Mumbai; Science and Technology Park, University of Pune; Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership, College of Engineering Pune; Aartech , one of the first corporate Atal Incubation Centres established under the Atal Innovation Mission ; Sandip Incubators ; and Forge to provide incubation opportunities to deserving ideas.
KPIT Sparkle 2020 has been associated with DST; NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission ; All India Council for Technical Education ; India Design Council; National Institute of Design; and ONGC Energy Centre as its knowledge partners.